November 2009 - Journal Letter - Burundi

Ruth Simpson - American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)

Dear Friends,

Rainy season in Burundi has begun with a storm (literally), resulting in my housemates and I having to bail out the persistent, creeping water from our living room and kitchen. Meanwhile, our inconvenience is put into perspective as the torrents of water result in mass destruction of houses in nearby Kamenge. The rainy season has come late this year; in the north farmers have finally managed plant their crops but the drought continues in the south of Burundi where farmers desperately wait for rain. In a country where over 90 percent of the population survive through agriculture – delayed rains spell disaster and growing food insecurity over the coming year. Food security is one of a number of challenges facing Burundi and its prospects for establishing a secure and peaceful future. The mounting uncertainty and insecurity around the fast approaching 2010 elections puts these challenges into sharp focus. Burundi is a country in transition – moving from years of conflict to a fragile peace. In this post-conflict context the challenges of poverty and economic development, political intimidation and the proliferation of Small Arms within the civilian population become all the more destabilising.

Next year’s elections are the main area of focus for the international community – the United Nations (UN) aims to support free and fair elections and the International Foundation for Electoral Support (IFES) is coordinating the support, for example by training electoral observers. This support is much needed. However, in a time of global financial crisis, the actual financial support falls well short of what is needed (and what was promised). Furthermore, in putting the elections in the spotlight there is a danger of ignoring Burundi’s long-term, structural challenges, which remain an obstacle to lasting peace. Indeed, in a meeting with the new Chair of the UN Peacebuilding Commission, Burundi civil society expressed their concerns that these pressing issues would be forgotten in the midst of the election hype.

AFSC supports Burundian civil society organisations in this view. After all, without addressing the root causes of conflict, how can there be lasting peace? At AFSC, I have the privilege to work with local partners. One such partner is the Friends Women’s Association (FWA), which as part of their peacebuilding and reconciliation work, runs a medical centre in Kamenge – a particularly under privileged area of Bujumbura where many people survive on less than one meal per day. Here FWA takes the view that providing specialist healthcare (such as HIV/Aids testing and treatment), counselling and trauma healing form part of a holistic approach to peacebuilding. Access to healthcare is a social justice issue but also a peacebuilding issue, as whilst huge inequalities to access to healthcare exist and social stigma surrounding conditions such as HIV persists, it is difficult to imagine a fully integrated and peaceful society.

This brings me back to election fever: this holistic philosophy towards conflict prevention and peacebuilding influences AFSC’s work surrounding elections too. AFSC is actively promoting a more balanced approach to the elections, which not only focuses on a transparent process, but on election related conflicts. As part of my work, I am putting together a campaign to mainstream the principles of nonviolence throughout the electoral process. AFSC are working to fill in the gap between the theoretical link between peace and security issues and democratisation, and the reality that these issues tend to be treated separately. AFSC is working to make this theoretical peace, security and democracy link a reality through infusing the concept of nonviolence in the electoral preparations and throughout the process (before, during and after the elections). Considering the ever present security risks, high levels of apprehension surrounding the elections and the accounts of increasing political intimidation and formation of militia groups; it seems evident that the theme of nonviolence should be central to the electoral process. After all, in a context of uncertainty and insecurity, free, fair and transparent elections mean nothing if aggrieved parties or peoples resort to violence.

Gandhi once said that nonviolence is “the greatest and the most activist force in the world”: AFSC hopes to tap into some of that potential energy of nonviolent action in Burundi. There is already a lot of work on nonviolence going on at various levels of society to promote the Burundian concept of nonviolence expressed in the Kirundi word ‘Nduwamahoro’, which literally means ‘I am for peace’. We plan to build on this existing work and to integrate it into the election preparations, working with grassroots and national Burundian civil society, IFES and international NGOs. We are at the early stages of imagining how this campaign will play out and it is exciting to be part of something with such potential (nonviolent) force. The far-reaching potential of active nonviolence and the melodic drumming of the rain into growing puddles outside my window put me in mind of a quote: “Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.” (Scott Adams)

Ruth Simpson
November 2009